Racing: Running for the Right Reasons

Radcliffe explains her reasons for her crazy summer schedule

Competitive runners have all sorts of reasons for entering races. Sometimes a race is a peak effort, planned months or even years in advance, the focus and purpose of training, lifestyle, and several tune-up efforts. Other races are such tune-ups, which are run to maintain racing form and to gauge fitness as the main event approaches. Usually, though, distance runners refrain from a major race effort in the two to three weeks leading up to their peak competition.

Paula Radcliffe, considered the best marathon runner of all time and the current women's world record-holder, hasn't always achieved success in the "usual" way. Particularly in the past five years, as she's remained at the sport's pinnacle despite numerous injuries and the birth of her daughter in 2007, Radcliffe has repeatedly surprised the running world with her racing choices. In 2004, after her disastrous DNF in the Athens Olympic marathon, Radcliffe came back just 11 weeks later to win the ING New York City Marathon, a title she reclaimed in 2007 and 2008.

This summer, Radcliffe, the 2005 IAAF World Marathon champion, was hoping to reclaim her title in Berlin on August 23. The problem was, she hadn't raced in nearly 10 months. Last March, Radcliffe had surgery to repair a bunion that had caused pain and compensatory issues for several years. Complications with her recovery were followed by bouts of bronchitis and sinusitis.

So, prior to Berlin, she flew to New York on Aug. 16 and ran the NYC Half-Marathon. She won handily in 1:09:45, easing up in the final miles. Four days later she announced she wouldn't run the marathon in Berlin.

"After speaking with my coaching and medical teams, I knew I was sadly just not quite ready," said Radcliffe through a statement.

She dismissed criticism of her unorthodox "test" race just seven days out from the marathon. "Running in New York was a necessary part of the process to ascertain my race fitness," she said.

Does Radcliffe's experience serve as any sort of lesson to the rest of us? Should a less-accomplished runner, with less on the line than a world championship title, run a "test" race mere days before a planned peak effort?

It depends on the injury, of course. Radcliffe consults a top team of coaches and medical experts when making decisions, and no doubt she was advised that the risks of putting her 35-year old body, five months post-surgery, through the world championships marathon were just too great. Any runner is wise to have a trusted team of advisers and to follow their counsel.

It also depends on the runner. No one knows better than Radcliffe herself what it's like to try to perform on the world stage when she's not 100-percent ready. Her experiences in Athens and last summer in Beijing, when she hobbled to a 23rd-place finish in the Olympic marathon, are not ones she's keen to repeat. Radcliffe knows she has one Olympic marathon left, London in 2012. Runners at any level should take a similar long-term view.

Her decision made, Radcliffe sounded upbeat. "After having the surgery to successfully put the years of injury behind me," she said, "it is very important to me that I come back to racing often and winning at 100 percent – and continue strongly and successfully through to London 2012."